You can read Part 1 by clicking the link at the top of the page
To love abundantly may be the easy part, but to love sincerely requires a true humility of the heart.
I know that what I need most is to receive love and what I want most is to know that I am loved by the Lord of the universe. The easy part here is realizing that he tells me this every day. He is incessantly repeating it to me. And he also tells me that I am worthy to receive it. We all are.
In so many ways I spent my life (all 26 baby years of it) trying to earn things. Grades, respect, appreciation, friends… We live in a culture of working for what you want. This year has truly opened my lungs to breathe the deep refreshing breath of receiving the greatest gift there is without have to work for it, in truth I cannot.
Jesus Christ does not ask for a building, he asks for your heart. He does not condemn you for your sins, he died to free you from them. He does not condemn your behavior if you continue in the same sin, he forgives and keeps no record of wrongs. he does not ask you to wear a rosary or sacrifice a lamb, he was the lamb, once, for all. He shed his blood for the sins of the world. For people who did not believe in him then and still to this day do not believe in him.
What he asks of us is to Love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
He asks for Love. The thing Jesus wants the most is for a outbreak of love to overcome the death, hatred, separationism, and lies that we live under every day. It is not an issue of religion is it an issue of the heart; of love. The one thing we cannot do falsely.
When we give a lame account of love are we not convicted of how paltry it seems? Are we not aware of the times when we lied love to someone else? Sincere love cannot be born from a false self.
